Threat #2 to Shared Ownership of the family Cottage.
This is the second blog in a series of three identifying threats to the shared ownership of family cottages among heirs. The first threat in my previous blog was the inability or refusal of an heir to pay ongoing expenses of the family cottage.
Threat # 2: Conflicts among heirs for the maintenance, operation or improvements to the family cottage.
Everyone’s styles, habits and standards as to their property is unique, especially when it comes to real estate, a home and decor! What is the saying, one man's mess is another man’s masterpiece or something like that.
This can especially be problematic with shared ownership of a family cottage. Some heirs may want to maintain it as a museum with nothing changed while others may want to update kitchens, bathrooms, decor and furnishings. Some heirs may have very expensive tastes and others may not or maybe simply can’t afford those tastes.
The point is getting to a consensus on how to maintain and operate a family cottage among heirs as co-owners may cause contention that rises to a point of no return from the conflict and causes the heirs to sell the cottage.
What may be surprising is that not all co-owners need to consent to work being done or changes made to the family cottage. A co-owner can just go ahead and do whatever they want and as long as it is not destructive or doesn’t negatively impact the value there may be no remedy to the other co-owners who don’t like whatever was done.
However, in a well drafted cottage plan, terms can be included to at least require a majority vote or even some higher level of approval before changes can be made to the cottage. Terms can also be included to require the minority dissenting heirs to contribute toward payment of certain repairs or work that the majority feels is necessary. These terms are not guaranteed to keep everyone happy but hopefully will avoid these issues from sabotaging the continued shared ownership of the cottage.
The next blog will focus on threat # 3 which is the heirs lack of ability to afford to keep the family cottage.
